Brian Brings Japan to Springville Jr. High

We had a guest speaker as part of our Oriental unit. Mrs. Luke's brother-in-law came and demonstrated a whole load of Japanese cuisine!

He showed the kids about to make a Japanese cabbage salad with sesame ginger dressing, yakisoba, and miso soup with tofu.

The students were very excited for everything he made! They had no idea how much food they were going to get until he showed up and they left with very full bellies.

He showed them how to use a wok and the importance of not washing it with soap, but just wiping it clean so that it becomes "seasons" and cooks better. His wok is not fully seasoned and he's had it for 12 years! He showed them how to make a variety of different cuts in the vegetables so that it looks pretty, they cook better, and they're easier to pick up and eat.

When he made the cabbage salad, he showed them how to cut all of those ingredients as well. Then he made the dressing from scratch. So many of us nowadays just buy everything from the store so it was great to show them that you can do more than that! And, of course, they love delicious food!

The miso soup with tofu excited some students and freaked others out.

When Brian pulled out the tofu, a handful of the kids immediately exclaimed, "Ooohh, I LOVE tofu!" Others were a little less optimistic about it, but they tried the soup with tofu in it they changed their minds and wanted more!

The miso soup is a traditional dish in Japan that they used to have with every single meal. In Japan, soup is served with almost every meal anyway, but in modern Japan it is not always served or there are more options than the once staple of miso soup.

One student said about having Brian come and demonstrate so many techniques and foods, "It was really cool! I loooved the food!"

Brian said he loves coming to demonstrate and he loves the enthusiasm and comments the kids make.

I'm sure he'll come for every Oriental unit for the next forever.

Welcome to the Orient!

As we begin studying the Orient, we introduce the culture with an array of pictures and oodles of information.

The menu for this section:
Sesame Chicken
Curry
Guest speaker demonstrating Japanese cuisine
Fortune Cookies

The kids were excited to travel to Asia for these two weeks, but I think I was even more excited! Asian/Oriental cuisine provides such a great opportunity for kids to learn.

- Cooking techniques
- Healthy eating
- How to cook vegetables
- How to make rice
- Different ways to cook meat (brown, then stew)
- Cutting techniques (different ways to slice vegetables; at an angle - carrots, half moon - onions, etc.)
- Culture, culture, culture!

We started with a sesame chicken. Most people haven't experienced sesame chicken, and this recipe was a whole new amazing thing in and of itself! It was actually like a teriyaki-sesame chicken. The kids learned how to marinate meat and the importance of measuring correctly. If you forget the sugar or add to much oil, the next day your chicken will not turn out correctly.

On the second day, as the sesame chicken is cooking, it is important to know how to cook the chicken completely. The marinade makes it so the chicken isn't pink beforehand, so the kids learned about how to cut into the largest piece of chicken to ensure that it is cooked completely. They already learned about salmonella, but that was reviewed to jog their memories and to make sure no one got sick from undercooked chicken! After the chicken is cooked, at the very last minute or two, you add in the sesame seeds. We talked about how it's important to follow directions and read your recipes so that everything will turn out.

The kids LOVED the sesame chicken. It is such a delicious recipe and I hope that the kids will remember it and use it.

The great thing about this class and everything they are learning is that they all have recipe boxes. Every time they learn a new recipe, it goes in their recipe box so that at the end the course, they have every recipe for every thing they have made! Brilliant! Sometimes they even ask to take their boxes home so they can make something at home from class.

That's when you smile inside and feel proud.

World Travelers

Foods One (9th grade) is set up in a very interesting and fun way. These students travel the world as they learn about food safety, the Food Pyramid, fat, cholesterol, protein, fruits and vegetables, etc. etc. etc.

I really think this is fabulous! It makes learning so much more exciting! It really pumps me up and makes me want to come to school and see how the students will respond to so many new and exciting things. Some students come from other cultures, while others have never had some of the crazy things we make, so it's really important to show them all things they aren't familiar with.

When I started teaching the Foods One classes, they were entering the Orient. That was really exciting for me because I lived in Japan for 4 years from ages 12-16. I was so excited to share things with them that people just don't know unless they live there... part of that being some of the food! Granted, we Americanize our Asian food, but I was still psyched!

One of the recipes we made is something my family makes on a regular basis: curry. The best thing about it is that it's SO easy to make! (and SOOO delicious!)

Brown some stew meat and then throw all this stuff in a big pot:

the meat

potatoes, chopped up

onions, cut in a half moon shape

carrots, diced

a curry season packet (that you can get from the Oriental section of the grocery store)

enough water to almost cover the ingredients

Bring it to a boil, then turn it down to medium-low and simmer until the sauce thickens and your vegetables are tender. Serve over rice.

At the same time, I taught the kids how to use chopsticks. They loved it!

Not only were they learning about another culture, they were applying the State Standards in their labs.

While we made curry, we learned how to cook rice, reviewed proteins and fats - especially in relation to browning our beef, and the importance of vegetables in our diet. This Japanese curry is healthy for us because of its varied ingredients - and we talked about that in class while we made it.

It is so exciting to teach them in this way and then apply the "book smarts" to the "kitchen smarts" so that these students can learn life-long skills and ways they can vary their diet to eat healthily.

The Knights of Luke

The Knights of Luke are the Foods Students of Mrs. Luke at Springville Jr. High.

I'm Mrs. Murray. I'm the student teacher in this land of Luke for a few weeks.

I started by teaching the 9th grade Foods One classes (there are two of them).

Then I added 3 8th grade Foods Exploration classes (they're like Intro to Foods).

Then I picked up one Foods Exploration class with handicapped kids.

I love them all! They teach me new things every single day!

Here at this blog I'm going to share some of the things I have taught them and they have taught me. These knights are really amazing and we're on a roll!!